Two
cultures

A Closer Look

Frederick Frink, an early settler who
wrote about the town, described his arrival in Faribault:

I
approached the town from the east, coming down the hill by the
Front street road (now Division
street)...Looking across the valley, the most conspicuous objects
that met my sight were the numerous scaffoldings, elevating
by rude pole structures ten or twelve feet above the ground the
bodies of dead Indians, according to the custom of the Sioux...
All along up and down the river were the tepees of the Wa-pe-cou-tas,
far more numerous than the habitations of the white man, and
the intermingling of tepees, log cabins, frame houses had just
begun, with four or five steam mills plying a busy trade in
their
midst, with the rude monuments of an Indian cemetery in the
background, pictured a blending of civilization and barbarism never
again
to be seen on the continent.

This scene with settlers'
homes and Dakota tipis, was probably similar to what Frederick
Frink saw when he arrived in Faribault. "A Sioux encampment,
on the banks of the Minnesota River." From: Frank Leslie's
Illustrated Newspaper, May 30, 1857, page 400. Courtesy
of the Minnesota Historical Society .